As Whitman said so eloquently, "I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return." Thoughts, that is, about being a librarian.

May 13, 2008

Developing relationships

I have been ruminating for the past week on how to develop a comprehensive profile of our academic faculty. I have been on this campus for the past six years, and was an undergraduate here, so I know quite a bit about the major stakeholders on campus. What puzzles me is the lack of focus in our library on reaching out to these constiuencies and getting more input regarding library collections and services. Well, I guess that is what I'm here for. I'm beginning to realize (and its a bit of a "duh" moment for me) that one of the major reasons for pulling me into this position isn't because of any wonderful fuzzy feelings about my management style or administrative abilities. I think they want me to schmooze. Its finally come to management's (I feel like Samson on Carnivale) attention that we need to develop relationships. That we cannot continue to do business the same old way and expect our budgets to keep shrinking and still make everyone happy using the same old formulas and uneasy alliances. In fact, I am getting the distinct feeling that it is what they want me to do. And that is not a problem for me. I'm confident I can work proactively with the faculty and address their concerns, but I'm also feeling a sense of "wow, why haven't we done this before?" or "I can't believe we aren't doing this now!" and a somewhat sinking feeling of "..ohmigod, why did this happen this year!".Today we had a meeting to discuss our electronic resources purchases (and, even thought it is called an "evaluation" meeting, it was most...decidedly...NOT) and our new library faculty kept saying things like, "we need to do more promotion" and "why don't we ask the faculty if they use this" and I sat there, next to the person I am about to replace, and thought about all the little things that could have been done to develop relationships on this campus...but weren't. No one had any answers to questions about what databases our faculty and students were using for research. We know what we are teaching in classes, but have not asked the faculty to give us information about the resources they want their students to use. So, I don't think, in the end, it will be about schmoozing, per se, but taking the time to ask tough questions (both in and outside the library), find out faculty's concerns about the library and ask all the librarians who are involved in working with faculty (whether it is instruction, reference, IT, access services, serials, etc.) to brainstorm and do outreach every way they possibly can. I will be here to provide guidance, coordination and give them the tools and resources to do this, but it cannot possibly be just a one person job.